age
by Vertical Orbit
Summary: "You don't look old enough to be here, kid." But he was, and the red head was too inviting for him to pass up.


**Megan wants you to know:** So, this is a little one-shot I wrote for a prompt table called something like A-Z blah blah blah, and I'm writing little one-shots that are all story line connected, but don't have to be read in any sort of order. This is the first one, the beginning. It's not my best, but I hope you enjoy it.

I don't own anything from Kingdom Hearts, but I wish I could have Riku.

* * *

><p><strong><em>age<em>**

Roxas never did anything the normal way.

He spent the majority of his youth playing in the dirt outside than in front of the television. In junior high, he asked his best friend, a boy, to his first dance instead of a girl. In high school, he didn't graduate with the normal diploma. He found a full time job in a title search company for real estate instead of going to college.

In his office, he was the brightest among the heavy set women and men who were stuck in their dead end jobs that made them enough money to get by. He was helpful, cheerful, and did his best to make things right. He wasn't meant for a desk job, he was meant for something more. But his salary was enough to let him live on his own and still have money to do what he wanted.

What he wanted wasn't always what he ended up with.

Nevertheless, Roxas saved as much as he could. He had a car, but he didn't drive it to work. His apartment was located only a few blocks away from downtown where his work happened to be, so he walked there and back every day during the week.

And so was the routine. He woke up early in the morning to get ready and eat breakfast, went to work, did the menial tasks that were required of him, walked home, made dinner, took a shower, went to sleep. And then he woke up a repeated the process over and over. And over. And over again.

While his friends were taking classes, staying up late studying for finals, he was waking up early and working to put himself through life. He wasn't made for school.

Every so often someone would come into the office and ask him how old he was. He was too young for his position; he couldn't possibly have a college degree. He told him he didn't, and they were always amazed. "You aren't a normal young person," an older lady had told him once, and he shook his head, said "No, 'mam, I'm not."

Roxas was anything but normal, and strived to keep it that way.

He was walking home from work when he got the call.

"Hey, wanna go to the bars tonight?"

His cousin Sora, ever the cheerful, was planning a get together for the college students finishing finals. Roxas, being college aged and friends with all of them, was always invited out for the fun. Most of the time he tried to keep them out of trouble. Sora was really good at getting them in trouble.

"Sure. What time?"

* * *

><p>Sora and his crew met at Roxas's apartment at 10 o'clock. Roxas was dressed to kill in his dark blue pinstripe button up and light jeans, a few rings on his fingers and a small chain necklace dangling from his neck. He left his collar unbuttoned a few, showing off a bit of his chest. If he was going to go out, he wanted to look good.<p>

Riku, Sora's friend whom Roxas was sure Sora had "special relations" with, gave him the up and down gaze. "You look hot tonight."

Roxas fought back a blush, and quietly responded, "So do you." He greeted the others with a hug. Kairi and Selphie, who were dressed in tiny pink and yellow dresses respectively, giggled together as he hugged them, already a bit tipsy and smelling of vodka. He whispered a "good to see ya" in their ears. Tidus and Wakka high fived him when he greeted them.

"So!" Sora shouted from his kitchen, a bottle of hard liquor in one hand and a few shot glasses in another. "Who wants to do shots?"

The gang filed in to the kitchen as Sora poured rum into several shot glasses, getting some of the contents from the bottle all over the counter.

Riku grabbed the first one. "What are we toasting to?"

Roxas shrugged, grabbing his shot. "Who says we have to toast?"

"It's a shot, Roxas! Can't do shots without a toast!" Sora shouted, stumbled a little to keep his balance. "Let's toast to summer!"

"To summer!"

"To getting laid!" Riku added on right before they tossed their shots back.

Rum was Roxas's alcohol of choice, especially Malibu, which is what Sora chose off of his shelf. He loved the feeling as it went down his throat, settling in to his stomach with a light warm sensation.

They did another round of shots before leaving the apartment and heading off to the bars. Roxas lived in an apartment in downtown Traverse Town, only a block away from the strip of bars down Fantastia Lane. The bar scene that night was wild. College students were giving it their last go around before most of them left for the summer. The Blue Rhapsody, a night club famous for it's drinks and djs, was the first bar they decided to hit when Riku hooked and arm around Sora's and all but dragged him in.

Tidus ran up to the bar and ordered a round of Jager Bombs for the group, and then chugged a whole cup of beer before dancing up on Selphie. Roxas, not much of a drinker, sat at the bar with one drink in his hand and casually sipped on it. He kept an eye on his friends in the crowd dancing.

Kairi nudged him with her elbow. "So, have you met anybody?"

The question threw Roxas for a loop, not quite sure why she asked that. "Um..." he paused, unsure of what to say. He didn't want to say anything suspicious. "Not recently."

"That's too bad."

"What's too bad?"

She took a swig of her drink, pineapple and malibu rum, and swayed a little. "Too bad for you. That you don't like women."

"How did you-"

"Please." She put her hand over his mouth and leaned in, whispering, "It's so fucking obvious." When she released him, she wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him close. "You're too cute."

Roxas hadn't known Kairi for very long, but she was a cute drunk. And while he might now be attracted to her, that didn't stop him from wanting to dance. "Come on," he said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her out onto the dance floor.

They danced together for a while, laughing and smiling. They watched Wakka hit on a girl at the bar and get a drink poured on him, and they watched as Riku grabbed Sora and led him into the back of the club. It wasn't until Kairi ran into a guy she knew that he left the dance floor for another drink at the bar.

"Give me a Redbull and vodka." He told the bartender, slumping down on a barstool. "Extra vodka."

"You don't look old enough to be here, kid."

Roxas heard the man speak as he saw a hand placed on the bar in front of him, could feel the warmth of his breath on his face. He turned to look up at the man. Deep green eyes met his, and for a moment Roxas couldn't move. He took in the man, fire engine red hair spiked back and triangles tattooed under his eyes. The man had one hand on the bar (he was wearing fishnet gloves) and another on the back of the stool that Roxas was sitting on, cornering him against the bar table.

"E-excuse me?"

"How old are you?"

"21."

The man smirked, backing off of Roxas and taking a seat next to him. "21, huh? Better than the alternative."

The bartender brought Roxas his Redbull and vodka, and before Roxas had pulled out his wallet, the red head had already placed a five down on the counter. "Keep the change," he said and winked, the bartender rolled his eyes in response.

Roxas, unsure of what to say other than a quick "thanks," took a big gulp of the tangy drink, felt the alcohol burn all the way down.

"I'm Axel." He said, offering out his hand.

Roxas, shyly, shook Axel's hand. "I'm Roxas."

"Nice name. Like the ring of it." Axel held on to Roxas's hand a fraction longer than normal, smiling. "You live around here?"

"Yeah. Right around the block."

"You go to school here?"

He shook his head. "Work full time."

"Ah, nice, I like it." He watched Roxas take another drink, smirking. "You should finish that so we can go dance."

Roxas was taken back at the brash move made by this "Axel." He took another full swig and killed the drink as Axel grabbed his hand and all but dragged him out onto the floor. He could feel the alcohol finally kicking in, metabolizing in his blood stream. The shots combined with the vodka and Redbull made his head twirl, the lights of the club blurring together. He saw red, lots of red, twined his fingers in Axel's hair as his body moved to the beat. Axel wrapped two arms around Roxas's waist, pulled him close, leaned down and kissed his neck, kissed his face. Roxas let it happen, didn't stop it, needed more. He grasped Axel's tank top and pulled him down, kissed him hard.

"Hey now," Axel said against Roxas's lips, their faces touching as they continued to grind their bodies together to the music. "You're pretty cute."

"Shut up."

* * *

><p>Roxas woke up to the sunlight shining through his blinds on the window. He rolled over, glared at it, and pulled the blankets over his head. He had a pounding headache and wasn't sure how he got home, or why he was naked.<p>

He mustered up the courage after a few minutes to move out of bed. He saw the clothes he had been wearing at the bars all over the floor, his pants right next to the bed.

Someone had been home with him, he knew that much. Was it the red head? He couldn't remember hanging out with anyone else at the bar other than Kairi. And he certainly wouldn't have brought her home, even in his drunken state. Not to mention she would have still been there, what with how clingy she tended to be. Didn't she run off with someone anyway?

Roxas continued to wrack his brain, trying to figure out what he had done last night as he made his way to his bathroom. He splashed warm water on his face and brushed his teeth. Alcohol breath was not appealing in the slightest, left a nasty layer of film in his mouth.

He went back into his room to find his phone, and saw a note on his bedside table next to a glass of water and Tylenol. There was a phone number and the name of a restaurant scribbled after a note addressed to him.

_Roxas,_

_You should stop by my work today and grab a bite to eat._

_Also, you'll be needing those pills. You drank a lot last night._

_-Axel_

Roxas downed the pills with a big gulp of water. He figured he'd try to meet up with this guy, see where it goes. No harm in that.

After all, Roxas never did anything the normal way.


End file.
